That's Marriage
by just a bit foxy
Summary: Set after "The Angels Take Manhattan." Rose suddenly stops washing the dishes and isn't sure why.


Rose suddenly stops washing the dishes and isn't sure why. She can hear voices in the living room – her parents, her younger brother Toby and _her_ Doctor. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Everything is like it should be. She frowns at her reflection in the window, gazing out onto the lane.

"Doctor," she says, "come in here."

The Doctor appears in the doorway, looking at her curiously. She looks at him, pressing her lips together. He frowns and comes closer, taking her hand and squeezing it. It's little things like this that make her realize this Doctor is every bit the Doctor that left her here before. If she had any doubts, there are long gone.

"What is it?" he asks. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know and that's the problem. Something just felt weird, you know?"

His eyebrows knit together.

"I want to go to Norway."

"Rose –"

"Please. Let's go."

He sighs and nods. "You know I can't say no to you."

And so they go, leaving her parents and curious Toby behind, to Bad Wolf Bay. She looks around, holding onto her Doctor's hand for dear life. She knows it might be silly to be here. The Doctor back in her first world can't come back. He told her that a long time ago, yet she can't shake that she should be here.

"Let's go back, Rose." The Doctor says. "It's cold here. You'll catch a cold. I'll catch a cold. You know how I get when I have a cold."

"Just a minute lon –"

The sound of crashing cuts her off. The sound of the TARDIS ripping through everything shortly follows. The Doctor pulls her back as the big blue box hurtles to the ground. She stares at it. He stares at it. Nothing happens. She looks at him and he shrugs his shoulders.

"Not a smooth landing, River!" An unfamiliar male voice says as the TARDIS door opens. "Not a smooth landing at all!"

"You knew it wouldn't be!" Another unfamiliar voice – female this time – replies.

She looks at the Doctor again. He shrugs once again. Then she sees him, a man with a mop of brown hair and an interesting combination of a tweed coat and a red bow-tie. He's accompanied by a blonde woman in a black dress. He looks at her and then grins.

"River, it worked! It worked! Look at this! It's Rose! Rose Tyler! And – and _me_!"

"You?" River raises her eyebrows.

"Well, sort of me. Look. Look at them. I tell you, River, this means something. This means we could –"

"But we can't."

"But it's _Rose_."

"I don't know who you're even talking about!"

"Doctor?" Rose says in a small voice. "Doctor, how did you – What are you _doing_ here?"

He comes closer to her, a mad grin on his new face, and takes her hands. "I am _breaking rules_, Rose, and it's fantastic. It's utterly fantastic."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Rose's Doctor asks. "Should you really –"

"Probably not." The other Doctor replies, still grinning. "But I had to try. Things have happened, you see. Terrible things. And once – once when terrible things happened, I burnt up a sun to say goodbye."

"Now you prefer a universe?"

"I wouldn't burn the universe. Don't be absurd."

Rose looks from Doctor to Doctor and can't quite believe it. This is the original. This is the Doctor who told her to run. This is the Doctor that couldn't say goodbye properly to her because he didn't like goodbyes. She always knew he didn't like endings, it was why – one of the reasons, anyway – she always promised him they would always be together, the Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS, just as it should be. Tears roll down her cheeks.

"Doctor, you shouldn't _be_ here. You shouldn't be so reckless."

The Doctor turns from his new companion who is actually telling him something along the same lines and looks at her, _really_ looks at her.

"You did it once," he says quietly, "so it was my turn. I've likely given the old girl a bit of a time and I'll hear about it, but …"

"What happened?" Rose points at him. "Tell me what happened. You wouldn't be here unless something -"

"I already said something terrible happened, didn't I? Rose, I've lost so many people in my whole existence."

"I know."

"I'm sorry. That was insensitive of me, but you asked me to tell you why I'm here." The Doctor looks at her with sorrowful eyes. "They disappeared right in front of me. There one minute. Then dead the next. Dead to me, anyway. It was like …"

"Me."

He nods. "And I can't get back to them. Just like I couldn't get back to you, but here I am. Here _you_ are."

"I expected he'd do something like this." River the companion says. "I knew I couldn't leave for a while."

"Him travelling alone never works out right." Rose murmurs. "He should never be alone. He's not good at it."

River looks at the Doctor and he grins at her, sheepish.

"You really shouldn't be here."

The Doctor looks at her again and for a moment she thinks she sees hurt in his eyes. "Rose," he says, "aren't you happy to see me?"

"Of course I am." _But how many times are you going to make me say goodbye_, she wants to scream at him_, I don't like goodbye either._

"Then what's wrong?"

"You're getting reckless. You're dangerous when you're reckless."

"But –"

"Are they not safe where they are? These people you lost. Did you lose them together? Do you know if they're all right?"

"They … they wrote something. It said they were happy."

"Then shouldn't you be happy? Shouldn't you try to be happy, too? Shouldn't you take your great big box and go on adventures like usual? Doctor, we all want to travel with you forever. I know I did, but we also want you to be happy when we can't anymore. We wish you well."

He's gazing at her and she can see tears in his eyes through the tears in her own. "Are you happy?"

She nods and takes her Doctor's hand, squeezing it. "I am. We're happy. Together. Just like you knew we would be."

He smiles softly. "I did know because he's me and because you're you."

"Am I still fantastic?"

He laughs. "Of _course_ you are."

"Go on, Doctor. Go see the stars. All of time and space. Where are you going to go?"

The Doctor smiles again, still soft. "Somewhere wonderful."

"Then go."

"Goodbye, Rose Tyler." He looks at the other Doctor and smiles once more. "Take care of her."

Her Doctor smiles, nodding, and as quickly as he came, he's gone. In the days to come, Rose will think that it was just a wonderful dream and her Doctor, the one always at her side now, won't say anything different. He knows she needs to think that way and she's grateful. Somewhere in the other universe, the Doctor from yesteryear, is living on and she's grateful for that, too. When she looks at the stars, she tells them to tell him she still loves him and when they wink back at her on the black canvas, she believes they're saying _he still loves you, too._

It's not romantic love, she knows that, not on either side. They have their separate lives now. The Doctor she stood with and said her vows is the one who has her heart. That Doctor is becoming a man all his own, a man having the adventure the other can never have, and she loves him more every day.

_That's marriage_, she thinks as she once again takes up the dishes.


End file.
